High-ranking medical device makers cut about 7,000 American jobs in 2012, representing about 1.6% of the industry's total U.S. workforce, according to a Reuters report. Some of those cuts include layoffs at Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX), St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) and Stryker (NYSE:SYK), some of which were explicitly blamed on the impending medical device tax hitting the industry in just over a week.